Wicked Witch of the Wool

My adventures in knitting and my daily life on the farm.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A Weekend at the Estes Park Wool Market

Last weekend we went up to the Wool Market at Estes Park. Linda picked me up in The Beast along with Chery Friday afternoon. I almost thought that the fumes of yarn and fiber had clouded their minds making them forget to pick me up, but I should have known they would run a little on the late side ;-)
Traffic through Denver was actually pretty decent for a Friday afternoon, and we made good time up to Estes. We stopped at the Safeway there and bought all kinds of goodies for our weekend. Then we met up with Phoebe at the condo belonging to Phoebe's aunt. What a gorgeous place! The condo was a 1 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room with a fireplace, and a huge bathroom with a heart shaped jetted bathtub. More on the tub later. He he he.
Here is a picture of Cheri and Phoebe getting their knit on, while eating brie and crackers.



Linda was blocking her Clapotis. She had just experienced a knitter's nightmare; running out of yarn a few rows before completion while under a deadline to finish the project. Oy vey! The shawl was absolutely stunning, but missed the last few rows. Luckily, no-one would be the wiser after the blocking, and more yarn is underway. Her first attempt at blocking was pitiful (sorry Linda), all crooked as you can see in this picture....



We quickly made her block the shawl in the living room where there was more room, and I have a fantastic picture of her, with her bottom in the air, but for fear of death and dismemberment I won't be posting it here.

Saturday morning we awoke early to see the stunning surroundings. The condo was right next to a cute little pond with a bridge to a little island. Here you see Linda and Phoebe on the bridge.....



After breakfast at Starbuck's we headed over to the fairgrounds. Silly me did not take any pictures of the critters or the vendors, bit I did take some pictures of the people at the Blogger Meet. Here is Kristy with her famous self-dyed, self-spun knitted socks that grace the cover of Spin-Off magazine. I also met Miriam of Icarus and Seraphim fame, and I just had to tell her about my Icarus Gigantuous I made with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet. I need to re-block the shawl and take a good picture and send it to her.

This is my loot.....



First and foremost, I picked out a gorgeous sheep skin. I almost bought one last year, and have been regretting not getting it for a whole year. I'm actually sitting on it as I type right now. Since I really loved the yarn I got last year from Brooks Farm, I decided to get 3 skeins of their Duet in a nice variegated blue colorway. It is a total of 1,500 yards, and I'm thinking of making the Elektra jacket from Twisted Sisters with it. I also bought 1 skein of their Primero Mohair yarn to make a Moebius scarf with. Then I got 2,400 yard of blue alpaca lace from A Star (I must have been channeling blue this weekend). Finally I got 3 balls of Golden Crown Suri Alpaca (total 1,300 yards), 2 balls of brown 100% Qiviut, and a big ball of natural colored cashmere/merino laceweight (1,380 yards). I also got a pretty shawl pin, some shawl patterns, and some Addi Turbo Lace needles. I didn't buy any fleece this year. I have quite a few down in my basement, and since my back has not been letting me do any spinning I thought it better not to get any this time around.

I talked to several local cashmere goat breeders about doing a breeding swap and possibly to buy some more goats to add to our herd. Why I didn't take any pictures is beyond me. I also talked to some llama breeders about possibly selling my llamas sometime in the future. If we are going to expand our goat herd, we'll have to get rid of the llamas.

Saturday night we hooked up with Lisa and Brad who were camping in the Rocky Mountain National Park just above Estes. Lisa had brought her new Lendrum wheel along and was spinning while camping.



Brad and Lisa had a wonderful campsite overlooking a valley below where a good-sized herd of elk were grazing. We could hear them bugeling below all night. The dinner was very nice. We had brats, cold chicken, corn on the cob, strawberries, grapes, cookies, and finally, s'mores. Now, I was a s'mores virgin. We don't eat those in Europe. Linda had brought her "roto-roasters" and showed me the right way to roast a marshmallow. I'm sorry to say that I wasn't too fond of the s'mores, though. It might have something to do with hershey's chocolate I don't care for.
Here are some pictures of the festivities.....







I ended the evening in the heart shaped jetted tub back at the condo. Remind me to never add a large glob of bath soap to a jetted tub. The suds kept on growing and growing, until I could barely breathe. The ladies came running when I started laughing uncontrollably, and I think Linda took a picture of me in my soap-heaven.

The next morning we got back on the road around 9AM. We decided to take the long road home over Trail Ridge Road. What a gorgeous trip. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

















We arrived in my driveway at 2:30PM right behind my visitors who arrived half an hour early. Jan's colleague with wife and 2 kids had come to see the farm and pet the baby goats. I quickly unloaded all my stuff and got to playhostess for the rest of the day.

All in all a great weekend. Jan had managed to keep my plants alive in my absence, and he even started assembling my new greenhouse. I'll have some more gardening pictures in my next post.

3 Comments:

Blogger MJ said...

You got some nice pics!

Tue Jun 19, 12:10:00 PM 2007  
Blogger Bev said...

Ellen, I enjoyed reading about your trip to Estes. Since I used to live there it brought back many memmories. Thanks!

Tue Jun 19, 04:00:00 PM 2007  
Blogger LostRoses said...

Isn't Trail Ridge Road the most stunning drive ever? Looks like you had a great time all in all!

Sun Jun 24, 10:27:00 PM 2007  

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